SALON

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013 8:15 PM UTC

Congrats flood in for Shakira’s new baby boy

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Congrats flood in for Shakira's new baby boyCORRECTS NAME TO SHAKIRA IN SECOND SENTENCE - FILE - This May 29, 2011 file photo shows Colombia's singer Shakira performing with FC Barcelona soccer player Gerard Pique during The Sun Comes Out World Tour concert in Barcelona, Spain. It was announced on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, that singer Shakira Mebarak and soccer player Gerard Pique have welcomed a baby son, Milan Piqué Mebarak, born Tuesday, 22, in Barcelona, Spain. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)(Credit: AP)

MADRID (AP) — Within hours of Shakira’s baby boy being born, people are already asking about his future career.

Will Milan Pique Mebarak be a famous pop singer liker his Colombian mother, or an international soccer star like his Spanish father, Barcelona defender Gerard Pique?

“Welcome Milan Piqué Mebarak and congratulations to Shakira and Gerard Pique. What would you prefer as a present for the baby, a microphone or some (soccer) boots?” Manchester City striker Sergio “Kun” Aguero wrote Wednesday on Twitter.

Shakira, 35, gave birth to her first child Tuesday in Barcelona in northeastern Spain. Both the boy and mother were said to be in fine health.

Pique’s grandfather, Amador Bernabeu, said the couple was delighted.

“I still haven’t seen him (Milan) in person but I know he is dark-haired and weighs 2.9 kilograms (6 lbs),” Bernabeu told RAC-1 radio.

Congratulatory messages rained down on the couple from both sides of the Atlantic.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was among the first to wish them the best, while the Pies Descalzos (Shoeless) Foundation for poor children set up by Shakira in 1997 sent a Twitter message saying, “The children and Pies Descalzos team are happy for Milan’s birth. We love you Shakira!”

Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas tweeted a welcome to the baby, saying he “can’t wait to meet you.”

Antonella Roccuzzo, the girlfriend of Argentine soccer ace Lionel Messi, tweeted “Welcome to the world Milan Pique Mebarak. Now Thiaguin will have a great friend,” in reference to her recently-born son.

One of the big surprises was child’s first name. In a statement, Shakira said Milan was of central European origin and meant “loved, full of grace, loving,” in Slavic and “unification” in Sanksrit.

Milan, coincidentally, is also the name of the famous soccer team from that Italian city and Barcelona’s next rival in the European Champions League.

Bernabeu admitted the family was surprised by the choice and confessed he had never heard of the name. “I think Milan will become fashionable,” he told the radio.

The grandfather, a former director of the Barcelona club, made sure Milan was registered as a club member as soon as he was born.

Shakira and the 25-year-old Pique have been a couple for the past two years and are regularly featured in gossip magazines and TV programs in both Europe and Latin America.

More By Jorge Sainz.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
245 points246 points | 10 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
177 points178 points | 1 comment
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
188 points189 points | 45 comments
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
53 points54 points | 8 comments
vote
How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government -- "...much of the U.S. economic security support system consists of subsidies for the affluent in the form of tax breaks, like those for private retirement savings plans such as 401(k)s and private employer-provided health insurance."
36 points37 points | 3 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations